Mark I. Pinsky is an author and longtime journalist who covered the religion beat for many years. His books include Amazing Gifts: Stories of Faith, Disability and Inclusion; A Jew Among the Evangelicals: A Guide for the Perplexed; and The Gospel According to the Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World’s Most Animated Family. Pinsky […]

Read an Aug. 24, 2012, article from The Jewish Standard about a controversial, one-year online seminary, the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute.

Read an Oct. 17, 2011, column at Patheos.com that discusses the effects of culture-shifts on seminaries.

Read an April 23, 2010, article in Christianity Today about the growth of church enrollment due to convenience brought by the internet.

Sally Peters is director of the Center for Lifelong Learning at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. In July 2011, she led a session on vocation in contemporary life at Princeton Theological Seminary’s conference “Perspectives on Vocation for the 21st Century.”

Rockbridge Seminary is the nation’s first online-only seminary. Its offices are in Springfield, Mo. It reports an enrollment rate growing at 29 percent. Contact through President Daryl Eldridge.

The Associated Press posted a video on YouTube of the white smoke that signaled a decision had been made.